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Military.com Forums Health and Fitness Stew Smith Fitness Column - Sound Off! Swimming Workouts|
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Member |
RE: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,153063,00.html
Nice workout. With ailing muscles, torn nerves and ligaments, disc bulges and more from war and martial arts training swim workouts are greatest workout I've found. I do paddling(500 yds)then alternate in some sprints( can't do all the strokes due to injuries) do two miles in the morning( straight through, no fins) and then do my sprints...then if there's any time left I go for the swim fins and underwater. If anyone doubts a swim workout is funky my BMI has dropped significantly and I've also dropped weight I added due to injuries and no longer able to run distance. Funny story: I was down at Coronado about fifteen years ago having met some new SEAL pup grads and they invited this old grunt to join in on their ocean swims. I cleared it with their boss( took a long time) and knew to pace and go slow but these guys were really slow comparatively so I increased my pace to the point there were only a couple team guys in front. Of course I made it to the beach a bit proud and wham, now it's time for a six mile run ...they NEVER told me about this along with a few other surprises. Yep, I finished dead last but I finished. Danged pups are probably still laughing. |
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Super Member 'Save the cheerleader, save the world' Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Leave the rest to God. I'm freakin' crippled now. My butt-knuckle is killing me. |
Just kind of an FYI----for those who don't like to be 'trapped' with their own thoughts for an hour or so in the water, there are MP3's with water-phones now that are fantastic for swimming.
I found mine on swimoutlet.com.........the most wonderful part about it: more expensive doesn't mean better quality.  "I swear to God I didn't do it!!!" |
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Member |
I've never found any problem being trapped with my thoughts in the water, but then most of the time I'm trapped with my scorching lungs and screaming back instead so my thoughts probably wouldn't be printable!
And then every once in a while the ater temp's just right, movement doesn;t hurt, things gel, and it's slow but steady swimming "in the zone" and there's no thought at all, just play with the water. I do have a question about the fitness column though...does this fella, or anyone else for that matetr, have anything written in the way of advice for the chronic knee/back/neck/hip/foot/ankle injury veteran consequently badly overweight and trying not to be? Everything seems geared towards the nicely fit without much in the way of chronic pain stopping them from most exercises. |
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Basic Training |
Is it swimming a better cardio workout than running?
Does swimming burn more calories than running? What else does swimming does besides working your cardio? Thanks, nchoyara |
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Member |
Is it swimming a better cardio workout than running?
Swimming is a wonderful cardio workout. Sometimes the benefit is better than running and others it’s not. Depends on the actual workout. I had a stress fracture and the only cardio I could do was swimming. I joined a masters swim class at my gym and was taught technique and styles. We swam a lot of laps. When I was back up and running again I really noticed that my breathing during the run was much better than it was prior to taking up swimming. Does swimming burn more calories than running? Again I think it depends on the type of routine you have. Overall I think running and swimming are almost equal but with swimming coming out a little ahead. What else does swimming does besides working your cardio? Swimming works a lot of your muscles. You’re working chest, arms, back, legs, and abs. Think about it, you’re using all those muscle groups to propel you through the water. The water provides a natural resistance. It’s also easy on the joints. There are many different strokes that will concentrate on different muscle groups; breast stroke, free style, back stroke, butterfly, board kicks. I’m sure there are more but those are the basics. One thing I was taught – during freestyle when I turned to take a breath I’d suck in water. The instructor monitored me and noticed that I would pause my stroke when I turned my head, causing my head to sink just enough to suck that H2O in. So I made sure my stroke was continuous and viola! No more sucking in water. |
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Member |
For Prismatic.
I used to run a ridiculous amount until I got this really urgent letter of resignation from my right knee. Laid back and ballooned! So now I am trying to take off the extra weight with free weight exercises. I have managed to drop about two inches in the waist with dumbell curls, dumbell bench presses, and inclined bench sit ups. I imagine Stew having fits over there, but I work with twenty pound dumbells (about all I can handle right now) and do a superset of three sets of fifteen curls, three sets of 15 one armed bench presses, and then hug the forty pounds to my chest and do fifteen sit ups. Three repetitions of this routine takes about ten minutes (OK, maybe twelve) and about ten to recover a reasonable heart rate. The bench has leg anchors to help with the sit ups, and so far I have not developed any back problems (I use about 30 degrees of incline). |
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Member |
I have to echo what SgtW said. I took up swimming because it has the same benefits that running/jogging has except, swimming doesn't stress your joints!  JMHO, I could be wrong... |
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